Post #2 Shakespearian Sonnets

Good evening once again. For this post, I'm going to give my response and opinion to some of the poetry I have been reading in class. First off, I want to state that Shakespeare is one of my favorite poets. The words he uses are so descriptive and he uses them to paint such vivid pictures. I admit that his messages are a bit difficult to grasp at times, but once you do get a hold of it, it blows your mind.

My favorite sonnet written by Shakespeare that we read would definitely be sonnet 129. This sonnet is simply spectacular. Shakespeare talks about being in a situation in which we are chasing something that deep down we know we shouldn't be chasing. However, the chase itself makes us mad and blinds us. Throughout the sonnet, Shakespeare beautifully details this chase. However, it is the last lines in the sonnet that really brings the whole thing together. "All this world well knows: yet none knows To shun the heaven that leads men o this hell." I absolutely love that line. Also, I feel as if Shakespeare was talking about a woman in the sonnet. Unfortunately, I don't really have any thing to back this up, but I just get the feeling that he is talking about chasing after a woman, which i feel like a lot of people can relate to.

Another poem that caught my eye is another one of Shakespeare's sonnets: sonnet 130. In this sonnet, Shakespeare goes into detail about woman whom he is in love with. Now I know there are a million and one poems on this subject, but Shakespeare does something different. Rather than talk about how her beauty exceeds all others, he talks about how common she is. In fact, the very first lines go, "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun; Coral is far more red than her lips' red." He goes on to say he loves her despite her not being the prettiest girl around, and brings beauty to the common girl. I feel like we all can relate to this sonnet as every one is not super model gorgeous, however, there is a level of common beauty that lies within us all. That is the main reason why I really like this sonnet, and I feel like it is a reminder that being pretty is only skin deep, and inner beauty can be much more powerful.